The above Incendia images are my comments on what's going down as we approach the climate change tipping point and weather the global financial crisis, or the comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism, as Kevin Rudd expresses it.

I watch with interest. Uncontrollable forces affecting every living thing on this planet.

How will it all pan out?

I am beyond expressing anything much about it all now, except thru my art, as I doubt we can do much except try to survive. The time for remedial action was last century when we could have averted a lot of the problems becoming catastrophic by addressing biosphere carrying capacity in better management of sustainable life support systems & population controls.

I think few realised that the threat was real and partied like there was no tomorrow.The future is NOW.

My opinions, such as they are, are in previous posts. However action is all that counts and apart from being as minimalist as I can in my lifestyle here, I can do no more.

Good luck everyone.

Try to be kind & share the burden, not destroy eachother in some blighted Mad Max scenario.

Yes, we will survive, but will civilisation endure?

How will it all look in 100 years from now?

I am coping by creating art (aka selfish pleasures), and appreciating this extraordinary thing we call life, living in hope that our stupidity will not result in our annihilation.

Friday, May 23, 2008

It's here, right now, and we are all faced withTitanic-scale consequences.Just how will it all play out?

Powerlessness.An interesting concept.

We should have acted in the 70-80's,but maybe nobody really believedthis scenario would come to pass.

The sudden awakening of the 00'sto the reality of the tsunami nature of the catastrophesof over-population, inappropriate technology, profligate consumerism, greed,power-hungry rulers who fiddle while Rome burns,biosphere breakdown,climate change, gross pollution on all levels,(etc. etc., you know the litany),is just too late.

Spaceship Earth has too many passengers,is powered by polluting technologiescontrolled by power mongers with agendasthat somehow don't includethe well-being of the passengers and crew.

But of course I/you/we know all this.

Now we reap the whirlwind.

Incoming!

Hold tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride folks.Prepare for colateral damage.

Monday, May 19, 2008

All the above can be seen, with production details and, in some cases, a bit of prose poetry, in my deviantArt Gallery

I have been so sad. The disasters of the past weeks in Myanmar and China have been so appalling I haven't been able to stop crying at what I've been seeing on the news. So I have been diverting my mind creating fantasy art in Apophysis. Feeling so helpless, unable to do a thing to help, what else can I do except try to occupy my mind with the beauty within and without. There is enough being said about it all by others, so I'm not going into either horror here.

So I give you my art.

Ancient Magicwas created in response to ideviant's extraordinary recent works, Sanctum Sanctorum and Illuminati Tablet , evoking old stones and fantasy myths. Unfortunately my attempts lacks the expertise of his works, but I was able to express something of my own fantasy myths, based on the Bradshaws, which would horrify my old Prehistory Rock Art prof no doubt! All done in the spirit of fantasy Michael I assure you. No, I don't believe in that twaddle, science is science, but I can have a bit of fun fantasising, can't I?

Meanwhile the champagne weather of late Autumn here is giving us endless beautiful clear sunny days reaching the mid 20's round middle of day, but crisply chilly in mornings and nights. The full moon in the cold crystalline air fills me with the joy of being alive, thankfully happy to be safe here in my mountain idyll in this wonderful Land of Oz, as I gaze into the universe and ponder It All.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

She struggled thru the endless wet to feed her brood, begging for food every day at my kitchen window - see her in other pix by clicking kookaburra tag and here in my Flickr Anu Wilde World Set.

Today the laughter from the Native Tamarind tree (Diploglottis campbellii) brought me outside to record her successful breeding season as I see 3 juveniles and her mate with her, all cackling like crazy.

So I cackled back. Impossible to be sad with this mob around!

SUNSPOTS.

Yes a few spots of sun from time to time, but still showers most days.

The cooler weather has brought back my need to crochet again. Last winter I started on a granny square rug called Sunspots.I put my cache of finished squares away in one of those ubiquitous plastic crates with the onset of the wet weather of early summer.

SUNSPOTS IN STORAGE

But I posted the details of its' creation on GrannyAlong. Today I revisited the site and saw another has come up with a similar pattern so I'm inspired to finish Sunspots, despite the fact that it hasn't stopped raining and the air is humid and moisture-laden. This bird-blind of a studio isn't conducive to a dry atmosphere, I'm surprised my computer functions sometimes.

I have been busy organizing in the world of Tapestry Crochet lately.Met Megan Jack who makes extraordinary and beautiful hats.Go to the Tapestry Crochet site (sidebar) to read about her and see other artists in this field I'm uncovering since I started the Flickr Tapestry Crochet group.

APOPHYTIS

I'm having a rest from fractals for a while. I think I've got the hang of Apophysis, enough to rest on my oars for a bit and gather back the shreds & threads of the life I once lived before the Apophytis virus took me over. My main fractal cache is on Flickr and Picasa if you want to see what I've done so far - see sidebar links.

I've never had an obsession before and now I can see why addicts' lives fall apart. Time to show who's the boss of this ship! The lure of something so beautiful, so attractive, that becomes so dangerous. Now I've had that experience and can see how others can be taken over by various traps life can present. Just watch the news and see the fallen and the falling. Hear the stories of the victims who could not resist that siren song. Just like overcoming smoking or drinking, it is a matter of finding inner resources, of recognizing a certain objectivity and exercising willpower. It's all to do with personal freedom. Unfortunately many don't know how imprisoned they are by their own stupidity. We are, each and every one of us, such flawed and fallible creatures.

THE VIEW OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!

Hello......the Very Big Snake digesting the 2nd last pademelon ........goodbye...!

Click on tag at side to see more of her.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS

Kevin the Reformer is showing us his stripes. What a powerhouse we have in him & his team. The last few weeks have shown his dazzling diplomatic form with his OS trip. Here in Oz we've seen, among a plethora of much-needed reforms and initiatives: work place reform, climate change, 2020 Summit, China (Olympics, Tibet & all THAT!). His latest coup is the appointment of the (first-ever) woman, Quentin Bryce, as our Queen's representative. Could be the last too, as Kevin, Julia and the Mob are openly declared Republicans and I feel we will be a republic before 2015, if not sooner.Not a moment too soon for me.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

While exploring an Apophysis tutorial for creating Wires and Tubes Fractals I found how to create the classic Mandelbrot in Apophysis 2.06c beta 3D Hack.

Here are a few:

MANDELMANIA

HOT MANDELBROT

CLASSIC MANDELBROT

The below was created with the same Wires & Tubes tutorial.

COOKING WITH GAS

Finding how to create these fractals has given me a lot of joy. Feel like I'm taking Apophysis fractals away from the types of images usually associated with this program, opening new possibilities. Keep wondering what will be the next amazement this extraordinary program will reveal as I continue this journey of discovery.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Playing around on Apophysis is a fun & productive way of passing my last days.

The endless rain persists, but last week has seen champagne Autumn coolness kick in with showers early, giving spectacular misty dawns, followed by glorious mornings of sunshine before the clouds move in to bring more showers later & into the night. Gentle soft rain. Couldn't be better, for wet season weather.

Of course the insects are in full abundance, sandflies especially.I've had a couple of scary spider bites that have made me very sick for a few days.

The flock pigeons have arrived, but their numbers so few it makes me weep.Once the noise of hundreds, thousands, darkening the sun, was like a low F1-11 passing over treetops. Yesterday the flock numbered less than 20 birds.

The depletion of wildlife as our numbers increase and invade the last wild places is past critical, Researchers keep giving us the facts, but it's all fait accompli.

Like the coming climate change events, like our uncontrolled numbers impacting on the life support systems, unstoppable.

So we put it down to biosphere evolution. This is what happens. Watch and learn.Doing anything is a shoulda, coulda. Back then, when we first became aware.But few listened and those who shoulda & coulda didn't.Fact is we didn't & now it is too late.

How do we stop the icecaps melting?How do we stop the ocean conveyor belt currents changing?How do we stop the populations expanding?How do we control Mammon, pollution?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Today the people of Australia apologized to the Aboriginal people, the oldest living culture on the planet, for the wrongs inflicted upon them by the European settlers over the last 210 years.

Kevin Rudd, our humane and enlightened newly-elected Prime Minister, fulfilling his election promise, delivered the Apology to the Aboriginal people as his first task at the start of the first sitting of the 42nd Parliament in Canberra today.

Aboriginal tribal elders witnessed the event from the Public Gallery above.

Outside thousands of Aboriginal people and supporters from all cultures that make up our multicultural nation watched the proceedings on a giant screen. All around Australia people gathered to watch this historic moment that will transform our nation from this day forward.

I was in tears. Many were.

At the conclusion all members present rose in support.Their united voice said "Yeah".

Australia says Sorry.

This is a new beginning.This is not an intellectual exercise,nor an empty condescending gesture.Sorry is a word of substance with an agenda of positive action encoded within it.Reconciliation will follow.

This is a core promise of national responsibility that goes beyond all posturing, petty politics & puerile attitudes.

The Commission that will follow will introduce constructively defined projects to improve the life of these people.

We have to come to terms with the past in order to embrace the future.

"Seize the Day," says Kevin. Let this day become a rare moment of national transformation. The real possibility of reconciliation of our indigenous people.

It brings the last two shameful centuries to a close and opens a new chapter that respectfully recognizes these ancient people, the original inhabitants, who have inhabited the Australian continent for >60,000 years......some estimates say twice that.

We cannot go back but we can go forward and not repeat past mistakes.

Minds wide open we can tackle the challenges that we will encounter as we go forward in this new chapter in our nation's story.

Monday, January 28, 2008

I'm afraid you wouldn't like me very much if I told you what I do with strays, but I do live on a wildlife reserve and domestic escapees wreak havoc. The wildlife has been seriously decimated by feral animals in the time I've lived here.

I grew up with a dog called AspadelladouchByTheSea (Aspy for short), 2 cats called Pinkle & Purr & later another called Black Magic. Later I bred myself an Arab stallion called Banzai (from Banjo out of Ayesha). I came from that kind of 'normal'.

But my travels showed me our impacts on ecosystems and when I came here I dedicated my life to conservation and righting the land-use wrongs, as this land had been ravaged by logging, bananas, cattle, pigs & goats by various different owners over 150 years since Euro settlement.

Feral animals were abundant. A big management problem as being close to a National Park which some people seem to think is the place to dump unwanted pets, plus having a next door so-called Wildlife Reserve, which then had caged animals, both native and exotic, so it was actually a zoo in effect. The captives frequently escaped.

Worst of all were the packs of hounds the local dairy farmers fed milk slops to after the milking and then let loose to roam the mountains in marauding packs.The idea was the hounds became tick-infested as they moved thru the bush and they developed immunity (or died horribly). When they returned for their milk slops they were milked for serum which was then sold to vets who used it to save their client's tick-affected pets.

Obviously a pack of hungry dogs hunting in the wilderness ate any animals they could, including the koalas, wallabies, possums & etc etc etc.

Fortunately those practices ceased n 90's when environmental groups lobbied and prohibitive laws were finally passed that recognized the values of native ecosystems conservation.But much damage had been done by then.

The wild dogs, descendants of those packs and dumped pets, came around after my scraps and howl in packs, very unnerving. They have been known to attack people so I keep my doors closed at night. Fortunately they are fewer these days.

Every now & again well-meaning neighbors, or the Parks Service, put down 1080 poisons baits & that gets a few of them. A horrible death I also have to endure as they don't always die quietly & tidily in distant unseen places.

Then carrion eaters dispose of the carcass. So the quolls, bandicoots, possums, skinks & other native wildlife that eat carrion die too. And the poison goes all they way down to the dung beetles & worms.

Cats are as much of a problem and much harder to eradicate. I saw a feral cat here a few weeks ago that was the size of a bobcat, very scarey. That was no sweet pretty kitty can tell you.

Once there were possums, quolls, bandicoots, pademelons, skinks, frogs, koalas, echidnas, snakes and the full array of inhabitants one would find in a healthy wet to dry sclerophyll forests & rainforest montaine ecosystem.

In the wet we just had I saw ONE frog.In the 80's the roar of their mating numbers around the ephemeral pools made it impossible to sleep some nights.

Then came the cane toads.

Then went the frogs, the snakes, the skinks, the bandicoots & all that used to predate on frogs & ate canetoads instead. Deadly poisonous creatures. I have one frozen in my freezer as speak. The only way to dispose of them is to burn them they are so toxic.

Now I feed the kookaburra so she can breed, because her food chain is severed. I don't like feeding wildlife, but must say when she turned up with 2 emergent nestlings last week I nearly cried with relief. But now what will THEY eat? They are a species of giant kingfisher & rely on streams for fish & amphibians & snakes,lizards & skinks to survive.The streams have been depleted thru kids throwing stones & turning over the rocks & taking whatever they fancy might be fun in a bottle, till it dies. Plus pollution from Park visitor impacts & increased settlement impacts on the riparian zones.

My grass used to be grazed by a herd of about 20 macropds of various species, wallabies & pademelons mostly. Now ONE pademelon timidly grazes, keeping right close to the edges near the surrounding bush.

Now I have to employ a man to cut the grass. That means machinery and the noise disturbs what other creatures there are, plus inadvertently killing the odd legless lizard, of which very few are left.I haven't seen a skink in several years and I used to have about 20 scooting around the studio & outside, very friendly,. They controlled the insect that wanted to live with me too..

Possums are now totally absent...gone...I used to have about 20 of about 4 different species.

Quolls are GONE, haven't seen one or heard one in 10 years.

I now have ONE koala where in 80's there were 20+, in the 90's there were 8 or so...now only ONE!! I heard it crying the other night, so sad, no reply to it's mating call this year when normally the screams of ecstasy would make yr hair stand on end for hours at a time.I called this place Koala Mountain Sanctuary & dedicated it to the conservation of the core population of koalas it then supported. It seems it will be a sad epitaph, not a statement of success.There will be no new generations. The dogs got them all except this last solitary male.

All this because of people letting their cats & dogs stray or dumping them.It's not the animal's fault. It's people.

So I'm afraid I'm seriously unsentimental when I see the plight of these uncontrolleddomestic ex-pets.Cats and dogs are very efficient hunters and because Australia's major large carnivorous predator is the introduced dingo, which only arrived around 4,000 years ago, most of the wildlife species don't have that necessary instinct to combat them, so they are just sitting ducks, so to speak.

I had a friend who worked in Diplomatic Corps & had just come back from a stint in Martinique,some years back now. She told me the wildlife on those Caribbean islands has been so decimated as to be reduced to very few species. It is the same world over.

Wherever we go with our baggage & friends, we destroy the very base of the systems that have evolved only by the full compliment of their native inhabitants. Take links from the chain and it all falls apart. We are a very uncomfortable species to be a part of.

I thought I was part of the solution, but find I am a very definite part of the problem.

So, sorry to rain on yr parade, but it would be hypocritical of me to nod, smile & wave when I feel so very much otherwise on this issue of saving strays.

Please don't take it personally, because I respect you and where you are coming from.I thought if I spelled out clearly what has happened here you could understand why I am of that opinion.

My brand of green is very deep ecology green.

I am beyond being aghast at what we do and have done, so now I just try to live as lightly on the planet as I possibly can and watch the movie.I can't combat The Greater, the damage is done and we are now reaping the consequences of our mass stupidity.

Maybe we should write messages on the cave walls now...Control our numbers,

Respect the life supporting resource base & its component working parts

Use appropriate non-polluting technology

So if there are any survivors they can at least have a few guidelines to a more successful sustainable management plan for our species' survival in its' next manifestation.

The weather has suddenly become full-blown beautiful diamond days summer.

Butterflies everywhere. At least they are still in abundance.Maybe because there are fewer birds to eat them!

I will try not to think of these things and return to fractalising to divert my mind in the creation of useless ephemeral images that are total self indulgence so I can post them on DA & Flickr & have 3 or 4 Commenters say cool or WOW or some such ego booster.

I felt at the time, and still do, that if we were to right the wrongs and establish a sustainable life supporting management plan for The Way Forward we had to understand the fundamental Truth about It All.

By which I mean the way the universe works to produce life on planets and what the mechanisms are that turn stardust into living consciousness in our perceiving minds.

Objectively and subjectively.

The organism in the midst of the conditions must understand what those conditions are that support its existence and functioning body and mind.

This was obviously a Huge Call for Little Me!

But the truth I have finally nutted out has finally revealed itself, sometimes steps of it in Eureka moments, sometimes in slow iceberg slides of consciousness awakenings & realizations over days & weeks that eventually showed me a new viewpoint when the iceberg righted itself & started floating.

I had to figure out time, motion, chemistry, planetary formation, evolution, anthropology, the anthropic principle, the anthropocentric viewpoint, socio political evolution thru his and her stories, the way human systems work, human migration patterns, rise & fall of civilizations,biosphere evolution itself.

The wholistic view of It All.When a planet is Just Right For Life, it is called a Goldilocks planet. When we search the universe for planets, we seek those Goldilocks planets.But whether we will survive to ever explore another life supporting planet is now in serious doubt.

Consider This question:

How does biosphere evolution work?

How did that lumpy chunky fireball floating around the sunturn stardust into a living watery biosphere envelopepopulated by an integrated ecology of plants & animals that support another (super?) speciesthat relies on all the rest for its existenceand has the ability to see itself in context and the technology to maybe even translocate some core DNA to another Goldilocks planetwhen the biosphere it has plundered collapsesunder its uncontrolled population pressures and resource mismanagement?

And another question: What is that Sun?

Well, that was what I needed to know.

That was the truth I sought, beyond all the socio/political/religious human mythologies,beyond all this stuff about Chosen Ones,The Coming Messiah,The Son of God, The Pantheon of Gods, God the Supreme One, Buddha. & etc.

I had a discussion recently on the subject of Holy. I find such a concept rather precious. However I concede it has a place if it is translated into actions of respect and nurture.

In my Truth all concepts of Holy in terms of anthropocentric mythical beings have been replaced by the concept of the Holy Earth and the living biosphere that exists as it interacts with the Sun, the moon and space.Holy, to me, are the ecosystems such as the rainforests, riparian zones, wetlands, rivers, oceans, reefs, deserts, etc. and all those places where things exist that support and drive our precious life support system, the Biosphere.

I also regard all lifeforms, including human beings, and especially our children, as Holy.They are all Holy. To be respected, defended and supported in the best way we can.In the case of our human population, education as to the precious nature of life and existence is paramount.

Putting offerings on these holy altars by investing our energies in their sustainable futureshould be our species credo.

Now, slowly, some things are changing for the better, despite a lot of negative behaviors like war & crime,as the knowledge of this Truth which I find I now share with many, is getting to those who control the Power & the Energy systems and, most of all,the purse strings to get the action happening for a Sustainable Future.

But, alas, unfortunately, we are too late. Climate change is now upon us.

You wonder how much is passing cyclic change and how much is deep modification ?

It is both, but the deeper changes are now influencing the seasonal & cyclic events.We have been told to expect greater intensity and frequency of events. That has been evident as one hottest year on record builds on the last and the melting icecaps influence the global conveyor belt ocean currents, unleashing many complex reactions.

The biosphere systems are moving into new balances, skewing our life supports.

Here in Oz I have just experienced a small dose of what many others have experienced in varying forms of magnitude in recent weeks as floods drove people from their homes, killed livestock, destroyed crops and property over an area larger than GB.

My isolation of last weeks is now over, as a vital bridge was built today and at last I can access the wider world. I survived. As have many flood affected people. But at a cost.

As these incremental costs mount across the planet, pressures will build. How we handle what is to come is the big worry.

The Mad Max scenario of fuel wars and outlaws controlling through looting, fear and violence, could be one unthinkable stage of what is to come.

Human nature has cooperation inbuilt. Compassion, sacrifice for the greater good and all such laudable virtues are a recognizable part of being human.

However we all have the knowledge that when push comes to shove the less pleasant aspects of our nature start manifesting.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The endless rain enters the 17th week of wetness, (except for 3-4 sunny days mid-November 07) including a major flood event that came in a January 4th midnight cloudburst, causing huge damage all across district and 2nd highest flood on record.

About 570 mm in last 25 days. Over 22 inches on old scale.But months of it before that.A very wet wet season.

Bridge across creek at entrance after the mid night 280mm deluge of January 4, 2008.

Looking out across bridge towards main road entrance after the night's cloudburst of 040108.

Two weeks of bronchial flu, having to sleep in wet bed that got soaked in deluge & wet weather since plus too weak to move mattress anyway, and run out of clean sheets. Got myself to hospital when I felt like I was getting pneumonia. The good doctor gave me antibiotics and am on mend but still ill, it's slow. Couldn't talk for 5 days and it still hurts to cough. I cough a lot.

Everything is soaked & I have to sit with hot air blower on as I write to keep dry as the 100 percent humidity means I'm wet all the time. Have to use hair dryer on head every half hour or so to dry out hair.

Other complications I won't go into here have turned my life from happy to miserable.

STRANDED!The road collapse of 160108. Luckily nobody was on the crossing.

Now a DISASTER as the road has suddenly collapsed where it crosses a 20m plus deep knife gully on my exit road and I'm stuck in, unable to get out for supplies. Being partly lame hasn't helped, especially as yesterday my dicky knee went out of joint and I can't walk very well at all. On the steep wet slippery rocks that constitute the paths between studio & bunkhouse this is a nightmare of inching along balancing umbrella, walking stick & whatever I'm trying to carry between houses.

Water pours around running over every surface in an endless sog, even when the rain eases. Where there is grass there is a swamp of mud and slime. Where there are rocks they are all slippery & slimey. Inside the houses all is moulds. Every bit of clothing, bedding, carpets damp & mouldy.

The endless wet has also meant can't get car in under shelter as it gets bogged at slushy entrance to carport. So it sits out in rain and is cranky to start & runs on 3 pots. At least I have it to get me as far as the washout, about 1 km from houses.

Have supplies to last a few more days and my road-sharing neighbors can bring me necessities, as they have a car on other side of the collapse, but that hardly solves the problem. Trying to overcome the anxiety, but eating & sleeping now difficult.

Must summon inner resources to solve the problem & release myself from this prison.

I keep wondering what can happen next. Is this the end? Will some miracle happen to get me to safe haven and my usual happy self again?

Even poor kookaburra can't fly she's so wet. When she tried to take off after I fed her she dropped into bushes and I had to rescue her & put her up onto a branch to give her elevation.I hear her chuckling in the tree as I write.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Flooded in as 16 weeks of grey wetness culminates in a cloudburst that dumps 185 mm (mostly in 2 hours). Roaring rushing waters surround me in this studio as I write.The gift of life. Very frightening tho, as the storm was in the middle of the night and lightning crashing far too close followed by deafening and numbing thunderclaps that left me stiff with shock. Petrified of landslides in such deluges, as I live on a scree slope which turns to one big waterfall after a couple of inches. House sized boulders perch uphill from studio. They rocked when I climbed them (years ago) so they are not exactly embedded & secure.

The following fractals, created in Apophysis, as per, have been inspired by all this water coming to us at last after such a long drought.